US President-elect Donald Trump Chief Strategist Steve Bannon is seen during a press conference on Jan. 11, 2017 in New York.

After news that Steve Bannon will be a featured speaker at the upcoming New Yorker Festival drew sharp criticism from numerous bold-faced names, the fest has dropped Bannon as a speaker.

The news came after several famous faces, including Judd Apatow, Jim Carrey, Patton Oswalt and John Mulaney, all tweeted that they were canceling their scheduled appearances at the event.

The New Yorker tweeted late Monday that Bannon had been dropped from the lineup and that it was New Yorker editor David Remnick's decision.

Remnick put out a statement Monday that he had decided to drop Bannon from the speaker lineup.

"I don’t want well-meaning readers and staff members to think that I’ve ignored their concerns," he said. "I’ve thought this through and talked to colleagues -- and I’ve re-considered. I’ve changed my mind. There is a better way to do this. Our writers have interviewed Steve Bannon for The New Yorker before, and if the opportunity presents itself I’ll interview him in a more traditionally journalistic setting as we first discussed, and not on stage."

A statement from David Remnick, editor of The New Yorker, explaining his decision to no longer include Steve Bannon in the 2018 New Yorker Festival. pic.twitter.com/opayiw5GQ2

He also explained his rationale for originally including Bannon on the lineup.

"The main argument for not engaging someone like Bannon is that we are giving him a platform and that he will use it, unfiltered, to propel further the 'ideas' of white nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism and illiberalism," he said. "But to interview Bannon is not to endorse him. By conducting an interview with one of Trumpism’s leading creators and organizers, we are hardly pulling him out of obscurity. Ahead of the mid-term elections and with 2020 in sight, we’d be taking the opportunity to question someone who helped assemble Trumpism."

But the speaker drawing the most attention on social media was Bannon, the controversial former White House chief strategist who served as executive chairman of the right-leaning Breitbart News before joining Donald Trump's campaign as chief executive in August 2016. He exited his White House position a year later.

Bannon was set to take part in a talk with Remnick titled "The Ideology of Trumpism" on Oct. 5, the first day of the three-day New Yorker Festival.

The news was met with criticism on social media from many famous faces, including Hollywood A-listers like Apatow and Ava DuVernay and TheNew Yorker's own staff.

For his part, Remnick earlier toldTheNew York Times: "I have every intention of asking him difficult questions and engaging in a serious and even combative conversation. The audience itself, by its presence, puts a certain pressure on a conversation that an interview alone doesn't do. You can't jump on and off the record."

Still, TV and movie producer Aditya Sood noted that Bannon was previously featured on the festival's main page but had since been removed.

Later Monday, Oswalt, Apatow, Carrey and Mulaney tweeted separately that they were going to pull out of their planned appearances.

If Steve Bannon is at the New Yorker festival I am out. I will not take part in an event that normalizes hate. I hope the @NewYorker will do the right thing and cancel the Steve Bannon event. Maybe they should read their own reporting about his ideology.

I’m out. I genuinely support public intellectual debate, and have paid to see people speak with whom I strongly disagree. But this isn’t James Baldwin vs William F Buckley. This is PT Barnum level horseshit. And it was announced on a weekend just before tix went on sale. https://t.co/oYk1llNgvV

He created an online home for white nationalists to groom and grow their violent base. He cemented his destructive white supremacist views into the DNA of the White House. Now, New Yorker is selling tickets to see him headline. And here we are, folks. https://t.co/JyK8J13Zko

found out about brannon’s inclusion when you did. i would have appreciated to make a decision on this before it was announced. i would ask the new yorker to consider in the future that participants in the festival deserve to make a choice to appear alongside someone this hateful

i always saw the new yorker festival as a wonderful moment to celebrate culture. so when they told me it would kacey musgraves, zadie smith and mike birbiglia etc - i was all in. steve bannon — respectfully that’s a full no for me and normalization of white supremacy